The Isle Is Full Of Noises: Music for Shakespeare

Today’s programme features a wide range of music, but around one common theme: the plays of William Shakespeare were the inspiration.

Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises,Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.Sometimes a thousand twangling instrumentsWill hum about mine ears; and sometime voicesThat, if I then had waked after long sleep,Will make me sleep again; and then in dreaming,The clouds methought would open, and show richesReady to drop upon me, that when I wakedI cried to dream again.

(Caliban — The Tempest)

The works you’ll hear today range from classical – for example Tchaikovsky’s fantasy overtures for Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet and The Tempest – to the modern: Gryphon’s Midnight Mushrumps, also composed for The Tempest but this time by Richard Harvey for Peter Hall’s 1973 National Theatre Company production; and a great deal more, such as Alfred Reed’s evocative Shakespearian pieces for wind band. We’ll also hear a selection of period pieces from Philip Pickett and the Musicians of the Globe — the marvellous recreation of the Globe Theatre in London.

Zeeber Gold

Then please join us at 11am and 7pm Pacific Time (19:00 and 03:00 in the UK) for this week’s edition of Zeeber Gold — interviews with the movers and shakers of the 60s and 70s, recorded at the time. This week it’s an interview with psychologist Julian Jaynes in two consecutive parts.

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